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Wisconsin’s College of letters and sciences didn’t even let you declare for a major until you’ve been there three semesters. I always kind of like that outlook.

In a lot of majors you need to get started very quickly.  I kind of like the European system, there if you major in say biology, you only take biology courses (and closely related courses).  You don't take history and sociology etc.   They presume you learned all that in HS.

They also only admit around 38% of HS graduates while the figure here is nearly double that.

Guess it depends on the field and the company.  For EE, most firms I've worked for that are hiring fresh-outs, give preference to undergrads from top EE schools.  When a job listing has hundreds or thousands of applicants, it's a quick way for them to narrow the field.  I'm not saying it's a good way to do it, but it's something that is done.

The bigger schools are also a place where recruiting happens directly. Purdue has the Industrial Roundtable every year, a big job fair. That's how I got linked with the first company I worked for. 

Sometimes that leads to a bit of a pipeline--we had a lot of people in that company from the University of Toronto. I *think* that sometimes they would use the NCGs from that school to go and recruit said school... I say "think" as I got hired right at the peak of the dotcom bubble and by the time I was 2 months into the new job, the company had a hiring freeze. So I never got the opportunity to go back and be part of the Purdue recruiting team 

It matters if you are interviewing with an alum of that school.  The "status" of the degree does not, and I don't know that it has for a generation.  Hell, even an Ivy League degree holds no weight outside of the network you have bought your way into

I don't know how much weight that carries in engineering specifically. It might help build a rapport, which always helps of course, but I don't think it's anything like it is in other fields. And IMHO in engineering once anyone is 5 years out of school, nobody cares where they went... All they care about is what they've done since. 

The bigger schools are also a place where recruiting happens directly. Purdue has the Industrial Roundtable every year, a big job fair. That's how I got linked with the first company I worked for.

Sometimes that leads to a bit of a pipeline--we had a lot of people in that company from the University of Toronto. I *think* that sometimes they would use the NCGs from that school to go and recruit said school... I say "think" as I got hired right at the peak of the dotcom bubble and by the time I was 2 months into the new job, the company had a hiring freeze. So I never got the opportunity to go back and be part of the Purdue recruiting team

I don't know how much weight that carries in engineering specifically. It might help build a rapport, which always helps of course, but I don't think it's anything like it is in other fields. And IMHO in engineering once anyone is 5 years out of school, nobody cares where they went... All they care about is what they've done since.

Absolutely.  The company I work for has active recruiting presence on a handful of campuses.  For undergrad it's mostly concentrated at the major engineering programs, and the major business programs. And then for grad school it's entirely MBA and it's only at the very top MBA grad schools.  Including McCombs School of Business at UT, of course. 

And to the second point, also agree 100%.  Five years out, nobody cares.  But initially, going to a top school, can open more doors for you, than not.

And to the second point, also agree 100%.  Five years out, nobody cares.  But initially, going to a top school, can open more doors for you, than not.

Yes. A top school with a good reputation is more likely to open a door than not. And as I've often stated, it has nothing to do with the education you've received. It's that a top school usually has tighter admission standards, so to an extent you're using the school's filter as far as quality of admitted students to buttress your own filter trying to identify high-quality applicants. 

The difference IMHO (per @ELA 's point) is that I'm not sure, especially at bigger firms for engineering, that going to the same school as one of your interviewers is all that important. If I'm talking to NCG applicants, and I've got applicants from Berkeley, Michigan, MIT, and Purdue, I know where Purdue fits in that pecking order. I'm not going to give a lot of extra weight to the Purdue applicant just because I went there. 

In law, it's a HUGE deal for first jobs.  Pitt is miles ahead of Duquesne in reputation, but I knew if I walked into an interview and there was a Duquesne diploma behind him, I wasn't getting that job.

I interviewed for an unpaid clerkship in Michigan, and the guy interviewing me said "wow, Pitt, Ivy League, that's impressive."  I think he was thinking of Penn, but it wasn't a question, so I just didn't acknowledge it.  He thought I went to Penn Law, and didn't even get a 2nd interview.  He was a UM Law grad, and I assume everyone who got a 2nd interview was also a UM Law applicant.

This is a gross part of the profession. Once you've been in practice for a while, this diminishes, but there are some people for whom it always matters. My boss, when I was in-house, was a degree snob (and a Stanford grad, go figure). I think I barely passed her test, but being a vet helped. 

I think my alma mater helped catch some attention when I got my first job.

An airplane crashed into a helicopter because of diversity.